Royal's Awkward Body Language Around Meghan Markle Resurfaces

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's body language toward Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, during their final job as working royals has resurfaced in a viral TikTok video.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were quitting as working royals in January 2020. Their final royal job was the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, London, on March 9 that year.

The couple were seen chatting with Prince Edward, now the Duke of Edinburgh, but Meghan appeared to share some awkward eye contact with his wife, Sophie.

Two videos of the four royals at Westminster Abbey resurfaced on TikTok, with one viewed 3.7 million times and liked more than 125,000 times.

The footage was captioned: "The look that scared the hell out of Meghan Markle."

The two women did appear to exchange a glance briefly before looking away. However, it is not possible to say definitively what Meghan's emotional response was to the awkward moment.

A second video captioned, "Prince Edward chatting with Prince Harry and his wife," was liked by more than 42,000 people and viewed by 1.2 million.

It showed Edward chatting and laughing with Harry and Meghan, while Sophie stared off in a different direction.

The significant engagement the two videos received demonstrates that there remains significant interest in how the wider royal family view Harry and Meghan. This is especially so because the royals have taken a strategic decision not to respond publicly.

Queen Elizabeth II released a famous statement two days after the Sussexes' Oprah Winfrey TV interview, in March 2021. The late monarch stated that "recollections may vary" after Meghan said she was subjected to racist comments. That month, Prince William told a journalist the royals were "very much not a racist family."

However, the working royals have not done interviews talking candidly about Harry and Meghan's exit and the couple's royal bombshells.

That has created a vacuum of information about how the likes of Edward and Sophie, who were not themselves criticized by Harry and Meghan, feel about the open warfare taking place around them.

As for the Commonwealth Day service itself, Harry does not discuss it in his memoir Spare. Instead, he chooses to focus on the plans the couple were making in March 2020 to move to America and on the withdrawal of their police protection.

Much has been written by others, however. Historian Robert Lacey wrote in his book Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult that Harry was upset at having been left out of the royal procession into the abbey while his brother Prince William was included.

William, the book states, offered to swerve the procession and enter afterwards, at the same time as Harry and Meghan.

Lacey wrote: "The only problem was that 2,000 orders of service had already been distributed round the Abbey, explaining that William and Kate would enter and process with the main royal party—and making no mention at all of Harry and Meghan. So there was the snub in black and white—set out for all to see.

"Observers also noted that Harry's face was 'quite tense and unsmiling'—and that when William sat down close to him, he barely greeted his brother.

"Throughout the service, Meghan megawatted away with her best TV smile but, as the ceremony progressed, Harry appeared to grow gloomier," added Lacey.

"According to one observer, 'his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears.'"

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.